Hi I'm A Catherine Wheel and access my services from the Stonebridge Centre, where my local adult mental health team (City East) is based in Nottingham.

This is the hot topic of the day.

I had a meal in Cafe Options today where the hot stuff is. This cafe is based at Duncan MacMillan house where a locked doors policy reigns meaning I'm not in with a chance of the hot stuff . Cold food is unlocked in the lovely Cafe Art though.

Apologies to the now worried member of staff in Cafe Art who I unwittingly caused to be concerned by telling her I was just a person, instead of saying I was a service user. I do think that made it harder for her as she must have thought I'd arbitrarily turned up with no "legitimacy". I did the wrong thing and asked her if she could take me to Cafe Options for hot food, which she couldn't do. She did make good suggestions about showing Id etc and did say that she couldn't give me the door code. I didn't ask for this and am so glad she couldn't reveal the code as I'd never have remembered it. So your security approaches are being adhered to and the member of staff at Cafe Art was very polite and tried her best. I'm sorry I put her off by forgetting the service user bit.

Well, those Flexible Services persons who I appealed to were equally wonderful. I knew Flexible Services would be the correct phone number to dial following the instructions on the door of Cafe Options to phone someone in order to gain access if you didn't have a code in your head. Yes. An excellent choice. And an excellent flexible escort service. Even taken to the corridor where I only had a few steps to walk to hot food's end. Thanks too to this wonderful flexible person for not remarking on how I looked as though I'd just come out of the shower, and for not letting on, even if you did guess, that all was not entirely" fine, thank you", today. Just what my version of a doctor would have ordered.

So I hope the flexible services team will continue to be the escort service for admission to Cafe Options. You really are good at it. And thanks.

Responses

thank you for your lovely message and warm words of thanks to the workers you met. it makes me feel good to be a part of a Trust where all the staff (whatever the day job) show their compassion and are part of a caring organisation.

After your last post re not being able to access hot food options Jane Danforth was going to look at how people can access Options in the same way that anyone can access Cafe Art - I'll ask Jane for an update.

Thanks Tracey for your reply. I did get a response on Care Opinion yesterday from Jane and Amy in the response bit under the first post about hot potatoes, to say that my request to hear from the decision-makers has indeed been put to the team and that a senior person on the leadership team will get in touch with me about the policy etc.

I think the Trust is excellent at providing positive, moving forward responses to posts on Care Opinion. It is uplifting that you are all so open and giving about things said, whether the things highlight good, indifferent, or the far from cool!

Been thinking, I'm quite happy for all of us to phone up the Flexible Services Team and ask for the flexible escort service if you are. It'd be no problem for Flexible Services to fit this into their flexible timetables and use their flexitime to deliver. However if you've gone pale at this suggestion, then yes, I reckon Jane is the person to come up with a tunnel from Cafe Art into the Options Cafe for anyone access. I put my faith in Jane. Although I hadn't got her down for knowing how to access the hot stuff.

Thanks Tracey for your courage and bravery in the face of A Catherine Wheel. And for your much appreciated willingness to have a laugh!